For West Virginia Engineer, Home Is Where the Heart Is… and NASA, Too
West Virginia engineer Fletcher Newell transitioned from a NASA internship to a civil servant role at the Katherine Johnson IV&V Facility after years of self-taught programming and AI studies.
Fletcher Newell, who grew up in Grafton, West Virginia, developed an early fascination with space exploration through science fiction and a 2013 field trip to NASA’s Katherine Johnson IV&V Facility. Thirteen years later, he and 48 colleagues were sworn in as NASA civil servants during an August 10 ceremony. Newell, who began as a systems engineer contractor in early 2025, described the agency’s local impact as surprising and meaningful.
During high school, Newell cultivated programming skills independently, starting with graphing calculator scripts and advancing to software applications. His curiosity about artificial intelligence led him to explore computer capabilities beyond basic tasks. By his junior year in 2019, he joined IV&V’s high school internship program, where he built a database for engineering methods to streamline colleague workflows.
After graduating in 2020, Newell enrolled at Stanford University, majoring in computer science with a focus on AI and machine learning. Despite proximity to Silicon Valley, he chose to return to West Virginia for three consecutive summers, gaining hands-on experience at the Fairmont facility.
Newell’s journey reflects a blend of local opportunity and personal dedication, culminating in his transition from contractor to civil servant at NASA’s West Virginia facility.